Sarah Palins speech before the RNC has most Alaskans embarassed, disgusted and furious. Seems this woman can't EVER tell the truth about anything as has been her Modus Operandi since taking office. She's vindictive, deceitful, conniving and a demonstrative world class liar..
I've already told you about her very shady background and less than desireable behaviour in the 90's. Now I will address the lies she hopes the American public are stupid enough to believe. I'll begin with a few easy whoppers and move on to the more sinister, shady dealings which may require more explanation in my next blog..
First of all "I put that plane on Ebay" and "I made a profit".. ughhh.. This is TOTAL bullshit. She's referring to a private lear jet the previous Governor (Frank Murkowski) purchased in order to travel a state twice the size of Texas with very few roads (you can't even drive to the capitol here) for 8 million bucks. People in the state thought that was extravagant so she used this as ammo against Murkowski (along with the promise of an all Alaska gasline I will address in another blog) to beat him in the primary. This is actually the ONLY campaign promise Sarah ever kept, but the truth is SHE never put it on Ebay, it was sold at a huge loss and in fact, she actually wanted to keep it!
Shortly after taking office (and a few rides in this plane) people began to question why she was flying around the state in this 8 million dollar albatross she promised to get rid of. Her response was "it doesn't make sense for a Governor to ride in 4 seat propeller driven aircraft when their travel demands are so widespread". Voters were furious and demanded something be done about that plane, so after arguing to keep it for months she finally decided maybe she should at least keep ONE of her promises and appointed a 5 member board (at a cost to the state of $385,000) to investigate the best way to sell this plane.
After cashing their 385k check these imbeciles (all friends and supporters of hers) decided "Ebay" would be the best way to sell it. The problem was that since this "board" was composed entirely of millionaires, none of them had ANY experience with Ebay, so they decided to hire another company (more friends of hers from her church) to post it on Ebay at a cost of $150,000. So there it sat on Ebay month after month waiting for a buyer, I guess there isn't a big Ebay market for lear jets, something that obviously never dawned on any of these high paid advisors or our illustrious leader who "put it on there". Since you have to pay a percentage of the cost of the entire item of this size to market it on Ebay, the cost of selling it was rising rapidly so it was removed from Ebay and another group of advisors was hired to sell the plane.
This was a private enterprise that "supposedly" dealt specifically with selling lear jets. This company was paid 100k to try and find a buyer along with a %15 finders fee if they succeeded. They didn't. Finally a local resident of Valdez (Larry Reynolds) heard he could get the plane for 3 million (a 5 million dollar LOSS + almost another million in consultation fees) and decided to buy it. So SHE never put it on Ebay, SHE wanted to keep it and it definitely was NOT sold for a profit.
I told the Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that Bridge to Nowhere. Also total bullshit. During her campaign for Governor she is on the record speaking to the residents of Ketchikan saying "You're not nowhere to me" and "I will make sure you get your bridge". This was an easy statement for her to make since she was involved with taking money from the same group (VECO) that the now federally indicted Senator of Alaska Ted Stevens was. The people of Ketchikan danced around with glee and gladly cast their vote for Pathological Palin.
However, when Ted Stevens was indicted, Palin decided it might be a good idea to distance herself from him and ties to the VECO money she had hanging around her neck. The most noticeable tie was this bridge, so she suddenly became against it. Or did she?.. Another case of her not telling the truth or disclosing the facts, much like when NO one in Alaska EVER knew she was pregnant (including her aides) until she supposedly gave birth (quite a trick for a 97lb woman who could hide behind a toothpick). She wants people to believe she cut the funding for the bridge but it simply isn't true, all she did was remove herself from the funding the now indicted Ted Stevens had set up. Congress had already gotten rid of the "earmark" before she became Governor, however Alaska still received the 398 million set aside originally for the bridge, under a different earmark her own lobbyist group set up which she spent on other road construction projects that were not high profile..
"If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves." Apparently not! Her own lobbyist group has secured 58 million through Congress for the bridge project outside of what Ted Stevens had done, which in another act of complete stupidity they used to build the infamous 8 million dollar a mile "road to nowhere" that just dead ends, because of course there's no bridge to cross. It's just asinine.
“I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress". More total bullshit.. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town (population at the time of less than 3500 mostly meth dealers and pot growers) totaling $27 million. She increased the long term debt of the town by 69% thanks to all the expansions she went ahead with she promised she wouldn't. The fact is she left the town 60 million in debt.In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation.
"I cut taxes in Wasilla", well it seems she likes to tell half truths and only part of the story ALL of the time. She did cut property taxes, which at the time were the highest in the nation (this also eased her own tax burden on her million dollar house) but in the same bill raised the sales tax in order to build a skating rink the voters had twice rejected. I guess when a "hockey mom" wants a rink built it doesn't matter what the voters think, in fact to Sarah Palin it NEVER matters what the voters think, something she had proven time and time again in her 1 1/2 years in office. I will address these issues in a future blog.
